A final hail to the Chief

Seven years ago today, legendary trainer H. Allen Jerkens won for the final time at Saratoga Race Course

Allen Jerkens, his wife Elisabeth, and jockey Junior Alvarado celebrate Go Unbridled's victory in the 2013 Saratoga Dew Stakes. NYRA Photo/Adam Coglianese

Back when Saratoga Race Course conducted racing six days a week, the Monday following the Travers was the sleepiest day of the meet. Mondays typically had the lowest attendance, but the Monday after the Travers would feel particularly subdued as it followed the exodus of Saratoga Springs summer visitors who would leave after Travers weekend.

Post-Travers Monday in 2013 could have been a particularly forgettable day as the races were conducted under gray, drizzly skies, but one of the great things about horse racing is how an amazing moment can happen when you least expect it.

Trainer H. Allen Jerkens had been competing at Saratoga since the 1950s, winning the training title 1971-73 and sharing the title in a three-way tie in 1977. Jerkens’ most celebrated feat, upsetting Secretariat with Onion in the Whitney Handicap, came at Saratoga in 1973. In my experience, no trainer inspired as much awe and reverence from racing fans, media, and his fellow horsemen than Jerkens, who had not just witnessed but made a lot of racing history. He earned the nickname “The Giant Killer” (a nickname he disliked) through his history of notable upsets, but to racetrackers he was just “Chief.”

Jerkens could be bashful and his voice was somewhat raspy and surprisingly soft, but his reputation was all he needed to have the full attention of an audience, whether it was a small group standing around his golf cart during training hours or a packed dining room at The Parting Glass tavern. He would sometimes make anachronistic comments, such as when he asked a reporter if he knew trainer Hirsch Jacobs (1904-1970) or when he made a reference to a movie that had been released in 1938. 

Despite his stellar reputation, his stable had shrunk considerably by the early 2010s and wins were becoming scarce.

“We didn’t have a lot of horses,” said Fernando Abreu, Jerkens’ assistant at the time. “He was one of the greatest trainers to ever saddle a horse, but you would see all of these new guys with all of these horses, and he was down to maybe 15 horses.”

Teresa Genaro, teacher and writer, said Jerkens seemed to be self conscious of how his barn was no longer as competitive as it once had been.

“More than once, I heard Allen talk wistfully about not having his name on one of the jockey statues outside the clubhouse entrance, which honor the previous summer's Grade 1 winners,” said Genaro. “‘I guess I'm not going to have my name on one of the statues this year,’ he'd say, with a combination of resignation and sadness. He was competitive and he wanted to win, and it was hard for me to watch his stable shrink, his wins decrease. And he really loved Saratoga, and I think he hated feeling like he might be irrelevant.”

Although Jerkens won just 13 races in 2012, he did get his wish to have his name on a jockey statue as he sent out Emma’s Encore to a victory that year’s Grade 1 Prioress and he added a second Saratoga stakes triumph when Go Unbridled won the Saratoga Dew. A year later, both horse and trainer were on losing streaks as Go Unbridled had gone 0-5 since last year’s Saratoga Dew (but earning grade 1 black type along the way with a third-place finish in the 2012 Beldame Invitational) and Jerkens was 0-17 at the 2013 Saratoga Meet. It appeared that Jerkens, 84, was going to need Go Unbridled, now a 6-year-old mare, to repeat in the Saratoga Dew if the trainer was going to continue his decades-long tradition of winning at the Spa. 

After saddling Go Unbridled, Jerkens and his longtime employee Bill Higgins walked along the path from the paddock to the main track to watch the race along the rail.

“When we left the paddock and went to the rail, Allen was talking about how Saratoga had changed,” said Higgins, who now works for Bill Mott while continuing to operate his Saratoga Garlic company. “When you walked to the racetrack from the paddock, [you would see a] big, white tent. He was talking about how the traffic patterns had changed, how the jockeys would come and go and how people would flow through the building.”

Breaking from the outside post in the field of seven, Go Unbridled settled off the pace early under jockey Junior Alvarado before she made a steady advance along the backstretch of the 1 ⅛-mile race. She made a three-wide challenge for the lead on the far turn before claiming the lead nearing the final furlong, driving clear late to win by 2 ¾ lengths. 

Go Unbridled and jockey Junior Alvarado win the Saratoga Dew by 2 3/4 lengths. NYRA Photo/Adam Coglianese

“When he won a race ‒ it didn’t matter if it was maiden claiming or a grade 1 ‒ he had tears in his eyes and he would high five you,” said Higgins. “He would hit you so hard you would almost fall over backwards. He celebrated [Go Unbridled’s win] with the same bravado. It was a pretty long walk from the gap to the winner’s circle, and, typically, halfway there you [could watch] a replay of the finish of the race on the big screen. That day, when we started walking, you could hear applause. I can remember him saying, ‘What the hell are they clapping for?’ And then he realized it was for him.”

I watched the race from a television monitor in the communications office, located in a building in the track’s backyard. Immediately after Go Unbridled won, my coworkers and I simultaneously stood up and power walked over to the winner’s circle, where another contingent of media members had already descended from the press box. We all wanted to be there when Jerkens walked into the winner’s circle. 

Genaro, who was at Saratoga that day to watch the races with her parents, reacted similarly.

“We were in a box between the sixteenth pole and the finish line,” she recalled. “It had been rainy, if I remember right, and I wasn't working that day; it was a pleasure day at the races. But when Go Unbridled won, I flew down the stairs and onto the apron, and I raced to the winner's circle. I was so, so thrilled, and my dad, who is an old-school racing guy, was pretty happy to see another old-school racing guy, and such a venerable one, win.”

The media contingent waited in the light rain as we waited for Jerkens, who was being congratulated by spectators as he walked from the gap to the winner’s circle. Some of us engaged in brief small talk, but we mostly stood there in silence as the minutes ticked and Go Unbridled, her groom, and Junior Alvarado continued making circles on the outside of the main track.

Almost five minutes after Go Unbridled had crossed the finish line, Jerkens arrived at the winner’s circle, and upon sighting the Chief the media corps in the winner’s circle and spectators on the apron and in the box seats applauded and cheered. With tears in his eyes, Jerkens nodded ever-so-slightly to acknowledge the standing ovation.

“Returning to the winner’s circle is Allen Jerkens, who has been winning races at Saratoga since Harry Truman was president of the United States,” announced Tom Durkin. 

Jerkens, who had long been the contemplative type, was even more reflective than usual when addressing the media after the race.

"It means a lot more [to win] at Saratoga. Every place you win and anytime you win a stake, it's just great. I've always been that way [emotional in the winner's circle]. You think of all the times when you didn't do nothing, you know. Well, we've had our bad days [but] we've come around, and that's what counts. This is the first one we've won here [this year], so we're off the duck."

The 2013 Saratoga Dew would end up being the final stakes victory in Jerkens’ career, which, in addition to Onion’s and Prove Out’s upsets at the expense of Secretariat, included Beau Purple’s three triumphs over Kelso, Wagon Limit stunning Gentlemen and Skip Away in the 1998 Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Society Selection capturing the 2004 Test at seven furlongs before coming back three weeks later to take the Alabama at 1 ¼ miles. 

Jerkens never again started a horse at Saratoga, deciding in 2014 to stay in Florida for the entire year. His wife, Elisabeth, died of heart failure August 3, 2014 at the age of 86. Jerkens died March 18, 2015 after having been hospitalized several weeks with an infection, with his final win coming from his penultimate starter, Easement, who won a maiden special weight March 6 at Gulfstream Park. Go Unbridled made one more start following the 2013 Saratoga Dew, finishing fourth in the John Hettinger in September at Belmont Park. The Jerkens name lives on in racing, with his sons Jimmy and Steven competing as trainers in New York and Florida and his grandson David serving as racing secretary at Del Mar. 

Abreu, who worked for Jerkens for almost two decades, took out his trainer’s license following the death of his renowned and beloved boss and has competed primarily in Florida since 2015. For Abreu, the Chief’s legacy is one of hard work, love for his horses and for the sport, and high demands and respect for his employees. 

“[Jerkens] always paid attention,” said Abreu. “It didn’t matter how old he was. He was there early in the morning, he came back to feed them in the afternoon, and after dinner he would go by his barn and check on his horses and see if they ate. He never lost that will to work. I try to follow him. I go to the barn at least three times a day. I look at the horses. Did they eat? Did they back off their feed? How do they look? How are they pointing their legs in the stall? Stuff like that, especially when they are relaxed and quiet. I try to do certain things, but I just can’t get it right like he did, even if I worked for him for 19 years. He knew exactly what to do and what not to do. He didn’t want to leave no stone unturned. Yes, he would scream at you, but you wouldn’t go home without him making up with you. He would look for a way. He would have a beer with you in the afternoon. If you did something wrong, he was going to let you know, but he was like a big teddy bear.”

Given what Jerkens meant to the sport, I will always be glad that all of us at the track seven years ago gave the legendary horseman a Saratoga sendoff worthy of a Chief.